By Buff Colchagoff – The reindeer had a choice: join Santa now or wait to see if the idea took off. It’s not unlike the decision healthcare organizations face today: whether to join TEFCA and a QHIN now or adopt a wait-and-see approach. Both scenarios offer compelling reasons to leap early rather than lag behind. Let’s take a closer look through a Christmas lens.
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By Erin Little – ASTP has taken your valuable feedback and we are proud to unveil the newly redesigned Standards Implementation & Testing Environment (SITE)—your all-in-one testing hub for the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program).
By Micky Tripathi and Mariann Yeager – The “T” in Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement is an important part of what drives our work. So too is the public-private engagement we have created over the past seven years. As we launched TEFCA last year we did so with the expectation that we would need to make iterative adjustments over time to help it grow.
From the Health IT Buzz Blog – As part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy’s vision of “better health enabled by data,” we are committed to advancing health equity and person-centered ways to promote the interoperable exchange of data on patients’ health-related social needs and broader social determinants and dynamic social drivers of health.
By James Pelletier – CMS’s 2025 rule focuses on refining the QPP to support improved interoperability, reducing reporting burdens, and increasing flexibility for participants. For MIPS, MVPs, and APMs, the updates emphasize quality, efficiency, and tailored reporting options.
By Cynthia Henry – As the healthcare industry adapts to economic and regulatory changes, Medicare Advantage stands out as a cost-effective model consistently delivering value to beneficiaries. Compared to traditional fee-for-service Medicare, MA excels in financial efficiency and quality outcomes, making it a resilient choice for enrollees and a strategic asset for payers.
By Amit Shah – HEDIS is a measurement set used to determine the efficacy of a payer to care for its members. The performance data collected through HEDIS assists payers in identifying areas for improvement as well as tracking successes through a measurement set that allows them to be compared to other payers.
By Patrizia Cavazzoni MD & Peter Marks MD PhD – Through the Hub, we plan to foster a community at the FDA for open dialogue and knowledge sharing to identify new approaches to drug and biologic development and overcome hurdles that have traditionally impeded progress for rare disease treatments.
By Terah Tessier & Laura McCrary – We sat down with the KONZA National Network team, one of the initial awardees, to learn how the STAR HIE Program helped support the state’s public health agency exchange health information during the COVID-19 pandemic.